Pittsburgh Pirates Prospect Watch 5/3/10

Indianapolis won 4-1 against Lehigh Valley. Jeremy Powell pitched seven shutout innings, allowing five hits, three walks, and striking out four to get the win. Vinnie Chulk pitched a perfect inning in relief. Jean Machi closed out the game with an inning of work, allowing one unearned run on one hit, with one walk.

The big story was that Neil Walker was pulled from the game in the fifth inning. The Pirates are expected to call up a position player tomorrow, and that could be Walker since he was removed from the game. Walker was 0-for-3 at the time he was pulled. Brandon Jones had a big night at the plate, going 2-for-5 with a home run. Steve Pearce went 1-for-4 with a double. Pedro Alvarez went 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, and two RBIs.

ALTOONA CURVE (AA)

Altoona lost 9-5 to Richmond. Tim Alderson pitched five innings, allowing five runs, four earned, on nine hits. It wasn’t the most encouraging stat line, although one bright spot was that Alderson walked none and struck out eight batters in his five innings of work. Dustin Molleken got the loss, allowing four runs in 2.1 innings of work. Daniel Moskos pitched 0.2 shutout innings, allowing no hits, one walk, and striking out one.

Bradenton lost 1-0 to Palm Beach. It was another strong start for Nathan Adcock, who pitched seven innings, allowing one run on three hits, with no walks, and eight strikeouts. The lone run came on a solo homer. Adcock now has a 28:6 K/BB ratio in 26 innings of work, with a 2.42 ERA on the season. That’s a huge improvement over his 5.29 ERA in 126 innings at the high-A level last year, where he had an 86:61 K/BB ratio. Casey Erickson added a shutout inning, allowing just one hit.

West Virginia lost 4-2 to Greensboro. Gabriel Alvarado made the start, allowing four runs, two earned, on seven hits in 3.1 innings, with a walk and two strikeouts. Jason Erickson pitched three shutout innings, allowing two hits, no walks, and striking out three. Brandon Holden had a nice outing, pitching two perfect innings with five strikeouts.

West Virginia only managed three hits, but drew a lot of walks. The hits belonged to Evan Chambers, Rogelios Noris, and Adenson Chourio, with all three batters going 1-for-3. Chambers and Chourio added RBIs.

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Tim Williams

Tim is the owner and editor in chief of Pirates Prospects. He started the site in January 2009, and turned it into his full time job during the 2011 season. Prior to starting Pirates Prospects, Tim worked with AccuScore.com, providing MLB, NHL, and NFL coverage to various national media outlets, including ESPN Insider, USA Today, Yahoo Sports, and the Wall Street Journal. He also writes the annual Prospect Guide, which is sold through the site. Tim lives in Bradenton, where he provides live coverage all year of Spring Training, mini camp, instructs, the Bradenton Marauders, and the GCL Pirates.